


Donate

by aspacewaster



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Community: avengerkink, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-20
Updated: 2014-07-20
Packaged: 2018-02-09 16:33:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1989939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aspacewaster/pseuds/aspacewaster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for this prompt on AvengerKink: Tony's been trying to 'donate' DUM-E for the last five months - donate him right to the scrap heap - but somehow, every time he puts the defunct robot out, he ends up right back in the lab.</p>
<p>As it turns out, Steve has developed a soft spot for DUM-E, and has made it his latest mission to save the robot from the junkyard. </p>
<p>Basically, I just want frustrated and confused Tony, and DUM-E hero worshipping Steve XD</p>
            </blockquote>





	Donate

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first ever fic and my first time ever filling a prompt, so be kind! Haha. This is unbeta'ed, since I know nobody who would beta for me, but I tried my best to make sure there are as little mistakes as possible.
> 
> Concrit is welcome. :)

Once in a while, Steve would visit Tony’s lab. He wasn’t always welcome there, especially when Tony was attempting something especially dangerous (or knowing Tony, ridiculous, since that was his nature and often that was how he came up with breakthroughs). But then whenever Tony was out to one of his charity event things or meeting things or who the hell knows things, Steve would often find himself making his way down to the lab with his sketchbook in one hand and a cup of coffee in another, his pencil over his ear because he found walking with one in his pocket awkward.

Today was one such day. Tony was off god knows where and Steve, well… He’d snuck into the lab with all the stealth he could muster, because sometimes Tony would put Dum-E near the entrance to deter him with a fire extinguisher. It had almost become a game, him trying to dodge Dum-E’s ‘attacks’ whenever he went in. Except when he entered Dum-E wasn’t there.

Steve shrugged and went to a table to sit down and have a go at finishing a sketch he’d been working on for a while of an image that kept coming to him in a dream. It was vague, mechanical, and he couldn’t really figure out what it was but he sketched and sketched, pausing only to sip at his cup of coffee now and then. At some point he got sucked into it so much that he forgot about his coffee and it went cold, at least until the tip of his pencil broke and he was forced to take a break.

He sighed as he sat back, picking up his cup of coffee and grumbling under his breath when he took a sip and it was cold. He got up to make his way over to the coffee machine, only to pause when he passed by a large crate that was labeled “JUNK” in big, stencilled letters. 

Steve’s curiosity got the best of him and he put the cup of coffee down, walking to the crate and gripping the top. It was nailed down but it wasn’t really too hard for him to yank the top off. What he saw inside was a shock.

“Dum-E…what are you doing in there?” he asked and shook his head. The thought of the bot going to the dump tugged at some heartstrings he didn’t know he had. He shouldn’t really care for a bot given it was just, well, a robot, but he couldn’t help dismantling the crate. With some help from JARVIS he managed to turn Dum-E back on. 

He picked his coffee cup back up, heading for the little kitchenette in Tony’s lab, only to find Dum-E had beat them there and was already starting up the coffee machine. “Curious,” Steve said to himself, but smiled as the bot proceeded to make him coffee anyway.

When Tony returned to his lab later that day, the first thing that greeted him was a spray down with a fire extinguisher.

~

It happened a few more times. Tony would enter his lab and find himself sprayed down by Dum-E. 

Of course it didn’t escape him that Steve was the one ‘rescuing’ Dum-E from the dump, but that didn’t really help matters all that much. Not when Dum-E had far outlived his usefulness and Tony should have really replaced the clumsy, periodically-malfunctioning bot a long time ago.

“STEVE!” Tony yelled out in frustration when he entered his lab only to get sprayed down the third time. It really was getting irritating. He didn’t know why Steve kept putting Dum-E back. What did Cap care about Dum-E anyway? It wasn’t like the guy needed or used him for anything.

Of course, despite Tony yelling at the top of his lungs, Steve didn’t respond. He was far too busy hiding behind a corner, silently laughing until his shoulders shook and his belly ached.

~

The fifth time Steve rescued Dum-E, it was by intercepting the dump truck that had finally managed to collect the crate. Tony had deviously planned for them to come and take Dum-E while Steve was otherwise waylaid with a mission. It wasn’t fair, really.

Fortunately he had the good sense to make sure JARVIS was telling him whenever Dum-E was in trouble. He didn’t really know why he kept saving the bot or why he had such a soft spot for it, but good sense told him it had something to do with his own past of being rejected and thrown out of just about any scenario he could come up with. He wasn’t useless then, despite being weaker and slower. And Dum-E wasn’t useless now either.

Of course when he’d caught up with the dump truck the men had seen an opportunity to make money. Steve parted with several hundred dollars without a care in the world, and with a satisfied grin he brought the crate back to Stark tower.

~

Tony entered his lab once more, smug in knowing that he had finally managed to ‘donate’ Dum-E. He was free to build better, smarter robots now. Robots that wouldn’t make critical mistakes, or initiate safety protocols when they weren’t needed. He walked straight in holding a mug of coffee, only to find himself knocked over by an overzealous bot, then sprayed down with a fire extinguisher. Tony laid on the floor in defeat in a messy heap, coffee spilled all around him.

Steve laughed as he came over, holding up a hand for a high five which Dum-E returned quickly. “Like the new trick I taught him?”

Tony raised his head up to meet his boyfriend’s gaze, his own eyes narrowed as he grumbled “I should’ve dismantled him instead.”


End file.
